Is Amazon Prime worth the money?

There are many online services that we use for everyday life, one of which is Amazon Prime. But is Amazon Prime worth the money. We look at the service and compare it with alternative options.

What do you get with Amazon Prime?

There are four parts of the service that some households would be likely to use. These include film streaming, e-books, online storage and music streaming. You can get these services though separate providers, but one subscription does make it easier.

How much does Amazon Prime cost?

Amazon Prime costs £79 a year. While you get all of the above it can be useful for getting selected items delivered in around 24 hours if you order frequently from Amazon. This option normally comes at an additional cost.

If we compare the costs of the benefits separately you can see what you would potentially save. In this instance we’ll compare the prices of other services separately.

Bought separately

Amazon Prime

Netflix

£89.88

100s of films and TV series

One Drive (50GB)

£18.22

5 GB and unlimited photo storage

WHSmith e-books (unlimited borrowing)

Free

Access to one e-book per month

Spotify music streaming

Free / Premium package

Ad free music streaming

£108.10 / £227.98

£79

Without the Spotify Premium package the cost is £108.10 over 12 months. Saving £29 a year.

If you were to include the Spotify Premium package you would save over £148.

Is Amazon Prime any good?

For cloud storage you can use a free app that lets you back up all your photographs to an online storage facility.

The online e-book option is ok, but as it’s limited to just one book per month it doesn’t represent major value. WHSmith’s e-book service lets you borrow a number of free books through their kobo powered service.

The music streaming service is quite good. With a selection of artists and ad-free streaming.

Netflix, Sky or Amazon?

From a film and TV point of view the main rivals are Netflix and Sky. Sky Cinema can be added to an existing TV package for between £10-£20 a month. If you want additional TV shows on demand you’ll have to pay more. If you have Now TV you could purchase the Sky Cinema and Entertainment packages for a combined £17 a month.

From a quality point of view, we would have to say that Netflix is probably the better of all three. They offer most popular TV shows on demand but also produce better original content compared to rival services. Shows like Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, Master of None and Stranger Things are all Netflix original productions.

That’s not to say that Amazon Prime’s video streaming service isn’t worth subscribing to. But if we had the choice it would have to be Netflix. Though it may be worth keeping an eye on Apple’s plans to launch a TV service.

£79 – is it worth it?

For £79 you do get a decent amount for your money. The thing you have to consider is your usage and how frequently you’d also be needing one day delivery from Amazon.

If you can cope with adverts while listening to Spotify then using the free subscription is worth it – but ad free music streaming is a nice to have.

Unlimited photo storage is handy as well – as it allows you to free up space on your phone and memory cards.

The e-book option isn’t really that groundbreaking – as you can get free e-books elsewhere with no monthly limit.

Where we think most people will use Amazon Prime is for the video streaming service. While the quality is good we still think that Netflix does edge it.

If you’re in any doubt you could always sign up for a free trial on any of the mentioned video or streaming services and see if you like it.

You may need to consider your internet usage and allowance in case you need to pay for using more data.